Raiders Are Draft Outsiders – Just Blog Baby (blog)

As we speak the Oakland Raiders scouting department is hard at work trying to find the next…Travis Goethel? Until the NFL hands out its allotment of compensatory draft picks the Raiders are reduced to scouring the collegiate ranks for two late round draft picks. A 5^th round pick and a 6^th round pick is all the Raiders currently have in their draft arsenal. Not exactly the kind of stuff that will help to build a champion overnight.

Then again, in pro football champions are never built overnight. Right, Philadelphia?

Reggie McKenzie’s recent job experience dictates that the Raiders will try to assemble a winner for years to come through the draft. That’s what he helped to do in Green Bay. Too bad that process will be delayed for at least a year in Oakland.

There’s no telling what the Raiders will look like next year. Even with compensatory picks the only means to find new talent will be digging through the dregs of the NFL. The Raiders are capped-out so it will take some serious creative accounting to get into position to compete for top-shelf free agents.

Therefore McKenzie’s scouts have a much different task at hand. They’ll need to be digging through the rosters of NFL clubs to try and unearth diamonds in the rough. Perhaps there is a Jeremy Lin of the NFL buried on the depth charts in Cleveland.

For the upcoming NFL draft the Raiders are on the outside looking in as the biggest off-season party in pro sports will be without the silver and black.

You’ve got to wonder what instructions McKenzie issued his personnel department prior to their trip to Indianapolis for the scouting combine. Yes, there is always talent to be found in the late rounds but those success stories are few and far between. In recent years the Raiders have done well to unearth late round gems but we’re only taking contributors not legitimate stars

click here to continue reading